I registered here after this video showed up in my YouTube feed. This was a great, insightful review, and I look forward to more content from the channel.
I would be very interested in seeing results from similar devices.
I don't know if it's of interest, but I've been chasing after AirPlay rather than Bluetooth, as it seems to have a number of advantages.
- It supports lossless 16/44 audio.
- AirPlay 2 supports multi-room audio.
- It runs on 2.4 or 5 GHz WiFi so there are no range issues.
- Apple devices on the same network see the receivers automatically, without having to go through a pairing process (but devices can be password-protected, if desired).
Used AirPort Express v2 receivers go for about $50 these days, which seemed like a great deal compared to the nearest alternative I could find - the much larger and more expensive
Sonos Port, at $450.
Except for the AirPort Express, AirPlay 2 receivers seem to be uncommon/expensive compared to original AirPlay devices for some reason. It's built into devices like TVs and AVRs now, but not stand-alone receivers.
Unfortunately, I found that the firmware updates which added AirPlay 2 support (7.8.x) seem to add
significant distortion to the output.
I'm frankly shocked that Apple would push out an update like this, because it's so bad; but the devices are discontinued now, and I can't find any way to get in touch with them about it.
I wonder if adding an inexpensive DAC would be the solution (they have a combination 3.5mm analog/optical output) but have heard that the problem is bad enough that the digital output may suffer from intermittent drop-outs with many DACs.
I don't know if these devices are something which may be interesting for you to look at, since they're only available on the used market now (but widely available).
These measurements are not taken from a proper analyzer, but I have tested several of them now, with the same results:
I've never seen anything like that before.